ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel's Netanyahu, Gallant for war crimes

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

"The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest," the statement said.

In so doing, it also unanimously rejected Israel's challenges to jurisdiction under articles 18 and 19 of the Rome Statute.

On their alleged crimes, the court said it "found reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant "each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."

The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded over 103,000 others.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.

The court also issued an arrest warrant for senior Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, commonly known as Deif.